


Night Work

by Wolfling



Category: Nightrunner Series - Lynn Flewelling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfling/pseuds/Wolfling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another night in the life of the Rhiminee Cat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Work

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dea_liberty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dea_liberty/gifts).



Alec forced a smile as he dodged the wandering Lady's hands again. "I'm sure your collection of nature paintings is fascinating and I'm honored you want to show it to me but-"

"But he's promised me the next dance," a welcome voice broke in smoothly as a familiar arm slid around his waist pulling him closer. "Sorry, Liseth, but I'm afraid I have to pull rank on this one."

The Lady Liseth sighed, but at least didn't seem to be taking offense. "I suppose I can't be too put out at you, Seregil, considering I would do the same thing if I'd seen him first. You've always had an eye for beauty." The look she shot Alec as she spoke was enough to make his face heat in embarrassment.

"Alec's more than just a pretty face, m'lady," Seregil said, still holding Alec to his side in a rare public display of physical affection, though for once Alec found it more of a relief than anything.

"He would have to be to hold _your_ attention for more than an evening or two," Liseth observed archly. She made a show of looking them both over. "You two do make a fine matched pair, I admit. Go on then. Enjoy the dancing. You can make up abandoning me tonight by having breakfast with me in the morning."

Without letting go of Alec, Seregil gave her a half bow and reached for her hand. "It would be an honor, m'lady. I expect we will be in need of food to restore our strength by then."

Lady Liseth laughed delightedly at that as Alec felt his face go hot again.

"Did you really need to say that last?" he asked Seregil when they finally had made their escape and were heading towards the dance floor.

"It's the truth, isn't it?" Seregil asked, with a sly smirk of a smile.

"Yes, but not in the way _she's_ taking it," Alec protested.

"I couldn't have very well told her what we really have planned, now, could I have?" Seregil lowered his voice and leaned in close to Alec's ear so no one else would be able to overhear. "You see, m'lady, we will have worked up an appetite burgling your husband's most secure and private vault in his very private study. Much better she think we're playing naked games in the dark."

That much was true, as much as having others thinking about he and Seregil together in that way still made Alec a little uncomfortable. "As long as she doesn't ask to watch or, worse, join in," Alec replied with a grumble. "I'm pretty sure I'm already going to find bruises from all the pinches I wasn't able to dodge."

"Injuries in the line of duty," Seregil intoned seriously, but his eyes shone with humor. The hand that had been resting at Alec's waist casually slid lower down to palm the area that had been the target of most of the pinches. "I'll have to make sure they receive the proper attention."

Alec could well imagine what Seregil would consider proper attention, and while he was hardly adverse to the idea, it wasn't really something they could indulge in in the middle of the ballroom, and their time later would be limited by their true pupose of their visit. "Just keep her at arm's length away from me until we leave and we'll call it even," he said, though made no move to step away from Seregil's touch or encourage him to move it to less private areas.

"Deal," Seregil said promptly. He glanced over at the area set aside for dancing and then back to Alec. "Do you really have your heart set on dancing?"

"Not set on, no," Alec replied, heart beating a little faster at the glint in his lover's eyes. "Do you have a counter suggestion?"

Seregil gave him a smile full of mischief and promise and proceeded to steer him out of the ballroom and down corridors until they'd left the din of the party behind. The first convenient alcove, he pushed Alec into the shadows and brought their mouths together in a kiss. Alec went along with it for several long moments, before finally pushing Seregil gently back, acutely aware that even here someone might stumble on them. "Get a locked door between us and the rest of the household and we can continue exploring that suggestion," he said.

"A locked door, it is." Seregil grinned and began tugging him down the hallway towards the room they'd be given. "After all, if we imply we're going to be playing naked games in the dark, we really should try to work that in somewhere."

****

The house was dark and quiet when they emerged from their room hours later, all business, although Seregil's body still held some of the languid relaxation making love with Alec always left him with. Despite that and the fact that he could practically feel Alec's heat from where he followed barely a step behind, he had no problem concentrating on the task at hand.

They were on the job and nightrunning with Alec was only slightly less heady than sex with Alec.

They made their way to Lord Rendal's private study, moving with a strange kind of meld of casual and sneaky, ready to either evade or blazon their way through any encounters with other people, but the corridors remained blissfully empty the entire trip.

Once they reached the door, Alec kept watch while Seregil quickly picked the lock, and then they slipped inside the dark room, closing the door silently behind them.

Seregil grinned as he pulled out his lightstone, and Alec did the same. No words were exchanged as the got down to the business of searching.

The information they'd managed to gather before attempting this job had narrowed the location to Rendal's study, but was unable to pinpoint it any closer than that. Which meant that the safe could be almost anywhere in the room. Seregil was optimistic that they would be able to find it, but there was the slight chance that it was hidden by magic, in which case, they may need to resort to plan two, getting Rendal to show them where it was himself. That would play havok with their timeline though -- they really needed to have this thing done before Rendal left on his supply trip to the troops in three days' time. To obtain the location and do another break-in in that time would be pushing it. A lot.

Thankfully, it looked like that they were going to be spared that, because Alec held up a hand when he was searching a liquor cabinet in the corner and turned to flash Seregil a triumphant grin. Seregil quickly made his way to his tali's side to see what it was he found.

 _Tricky,_ Alec signed, then moved one bottle at the back of the display which caused the shelf below it to drop a good couple of fingerswidth. He ran a hand along the slight gap now revealed, pausing halfway through. Seregil heard a soft but distinct click and the whole front of the shelf swung free, revealing a steel lockbox inside.

They shared another grin, then Seregil got his lockpicks out and got down to the business of opening the box. The lock was a lot more serious than the one on the door had been and it took Seregil a few minutes of trying, but eventually it popped open.

Seregil sifted through the various scrolls and documents inside, committing a few details to memory before moving on. Finally, down at the bottom of the box, he found what they had come after.

It was round, the size of his hand and fit in his palm easily. It was black and gold and gave off a noticeable aura of magic that made the hairs on the back of Seregil's neck stand up, whether from the power of the object itself or his own idiosynchratic reaction to magic, he didn't know. But it definitely had power that shouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

He looked to Alec who was already pulling out the silk wrapped package that Thero had given them before they left. Alec unwrapped it to reveal a perfect duplicate for disc that Seregil held, right down to the feeling of power it gave off. Seregil took the fake disc and handed over the real one, which Alec carefully wrapped up and put back inside his tunic. Meanwhile Seregil worked on putting the replica and all the scrolls and papers back exactly as he had found them, and locking the box up again. This would only work if Rendal had no reason to get suspicious so they had to leave no sign of their presence behind.

Just as he was pushing the shelf back into place to hide the lockbox, there came the sound of voices at the door and a key turning in the lock. There was a brief second where he and Alec stared at each other with almost comically wide eyes, then they moved as one, both diving behind the thick floorlength curtains that adorned the study's windows. It wasn't what Seregil would consider an ideal hiding spot, but it was the best they could do under the circumstances.

"-highly irregular," Rendal was saying as the door opened and he stepped inside. "I was told you wouldn't be here until tomorrow night."

"The road was clear, I made better time than expected." Though Seregil couldn't see the speaker through the thick material of the curtains, he could easily picture the bored shrug that probably accompanied those words. "Besides, what do you care? All it means is you get your payment a day earlier."

"I care because there was a party here tonight and so the house is full of people," Rendal snapped back. "Makes it more risky to be selling secret magic items off to the highest bidder."

"Not my problem," the other man replied with complete uncaring. "Look, just get the thing and I'll be out of your hair before any of your guests are any the wiser."

"I'm going to have words with your employer about the importance of actually keeping to appointments," Rendal threatened, but Seregil could hear him moving across the room and opening the safe they'd just recently been rifling through.

Seregil couldn't help but hold his breath, and felt Alec, a warm presence plastered against his side, doing the same. If Rendal noticed something amiss, the chances of their being caught would go up exponentially. Worse, their entire plan would be blown before it could really start.

But there was not outcry, no reaction at all as Rendal dug through the safe and pulled something out -- the disc Seregil was assuming. There was another tense moment when the disc was handed over and examined, but Thero's work passed muster.

Soon after that, Rendal and the other man left, locking the door again behind them. Seregil and Alec waited a good minute or so after to make sure they weren't coming back before slipping out from their hiding place, and another few minutes to give them time to clear the area before they dared to slip back out in the hallway and make their way back to their room.

Once the door to their room was safely shut behind them, Alec let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against it. "That was way too close."

It had been, but Seregil wasn't about to admit it. "It could've been worse. Think of what would have happened if we'd been just five minutes later."

Alec made a face. "No thanks."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Seregil teased as he walked over and grabbed Alec's hands, tugging him away from the door.

"I can think of much better ways of exercising my 'sense of adventure' than a close quarter fight with an armed man and a possible wizard, followed by running for our lives," Alec replied, but he let Seregil pull him across the room towards the bed, already rumbled from earlier.

"Actually that sounds rather scarily like business as usual," Seregil admitted, thinking of how many times some variant of that had happened to them.

"Thankfully, we've skipped that part this time," Alec said, then paused and added grudgingly, "So far."

"I think we're good for the night at least," Seregil said, letting go of Alec's hands in favor of working on the laces of Alec's tunic.

"If Thero manages to track that decoy all the way to whoever's been buying up all these magic items, we'll have plenty more chances to exercise our sense of adventure soon enough," Alec warned, but started working on the laces of Seregil's tunic in turn.

"And you wouldn't have it any other way, tali," Seregil pointed out with a smile, then leaned in to steal a kiss which Alec returned wholeheartedly.

"No, I wouldn't," Alec admitted, smiling back when they finally came up for air. "Just next time, you can be the one who let's himself get molested by the lady of the house. I wasn't kidding about the bruises on my backside."

Seregil grinned widely. "Let's see what I can do about kissing those better, shall we?"


End file.
